T-Mobile’s ‘UnCarrier’ data plans leaked

T-Mobile announced in December that it was planning to radically change the way it sold phones and service plans. The company said it will dump subsidies for handsets, and cut the costs of its voice, text and data plans as a benefit.

That’s very different from the way wireless carriers have operated in the United States. AT&T, Verizon and Sprint subsidize the cost of most phones, tying users to a contract to recoup those costs and charging more for services. But if customers pay for phones outright, contracts aren’t a necessity and service pricing can be reduced.

The big question for T-Mobile is this: Are enough mobile customers willing to pay significantly more for handsets in order to save on services and be free of contracts? Will people be willing to pay $600 for a Samsung Galaxy S III – the “Suggested retail” price on T-Mobile’s website – and save on monthly plans rather than pay a fraction of that up front but shell out more for voice and data?

It’s a big risk in the U.S., where consumers are conditioned to expect low-cost hardware. The devil will be in the details, and thanks to an apparent leak of T-Mobile’s data plans, we may know some of those specifics in advance of a planned March 26 reveal.

Earlier this month, TmoNews – a site that tracks T-Mobile news – got its hands on what appears to be marketing materials for services under its non-subsidy business model. T-Mobile will call itself the “UnCarrier” and offer in its own stores a very simple set of plans. Here’s a summary for individual plans:

A single line will cost $50 for unlimited talk, text and 500MB of web included automatically. To add unlimited data would be an additional $20 per month totaling $70. What if you don’t want unlimited data you ask? Each month you can use as much data as you see fit and T-Mobile will bill you $10 for each 2GB of data consumed. No need to call in and ask for a certain bucket, just use the data and receive a bill. You can go up to 12GB of data per line on every postpaid account, which is perfect for the time you travel and consume more data than usual. There is no mention of caps or overages, which begs the question for how T-Mobile will handle the pay per 2GB rate plan once you hit the 12GB cap.

There’s a similar simplified plan for families

Two lines will cost $80 which allows for unlimited talk, text and 500MB of web data included. Each added line will cost $10 per month and will also include 500MB of data along with unlimited talk and text. The same data rates then apply for each line: $10 per additional 2GB per line and $20 for unlimited data per line.

T-Mobile will still offer what it calls “Classic” plans through third-party retailers, according to a new report from TmoNews. Companies like Target, Walmart and RadioShack will want some way to offer phones with down payments, billing the customer later, and they’ll need a way to recoup those costs. Here’s that summary:

Like T-Mobile’s new Value Plans, they are moving to a one-size fits all Classic Plan. That allows for Unlimited Talk, Text and Web with 500MB of data thrown in automatically. As with the Value Plans, additional data will be the only extra cost allowing customers to choose from unlimited data or 2GB increment all the way to 12GB of data. The standard cost for Unlimited Talk, Text and 500MB of web will be $60, with unlimited data $90. Under the $60 plan, increments of 2GB of data use per month will raise the price by $20 from 500MB to 2GB and then $10 per 2GB increments afterwards.

If these documents are real, there remain a lot of questions, which should be answered by the March 26 event (at which T-Mobile is also expected to detail the launch of its LTE data network). But in the meantime, I’ve got a question for you: Are you willing to pay more money up front for a handset if it means a simplified, cheaper data plan and no contract?

Answer in the poll below and in the comments.

Are you willing to pay more up front for a mobile phone if it means no contract and cheaper monthly plans?